On a very cold, wet early morning on 2 January, a group of young adults alongside Joshua Robertson (the Children, Youth and Families Minister from St Mary’s Church, Newent) travelled from Gatwick to Stockholm in preparation for the Annual Youth Global Epiphany Conference in Rattvik.
The conference this year focused on democracy and what actions the church could take to further democracy, engagement with democratic process and ensuring that individuals feel their voices are heard.
The conference was attended by young people and communities from all over the world including Sweden, Germany, South Africa, the Philippines and Tanzania. Each day there were seminars and workshops discussing different elements of democracy and how people of all ages could get involved. The group fostered great relationships with other young adults from across these countries learning all about their culture, traditions, daily life and in some cases their food too!
Alicia Newman, one of the young adults attending from St Mary’s, Newent said “I really enjoyed the youth activities and chatting to the youth from multiple churches finding out what they do.”
Throughout the day there were regular prayer slots in the morning, midday and in the evening. On Sunday, the group led the conference in morning prayer using the Church of England Morning Prayer service for that day. It gave the opportunity for everyone to say the Lord’s Prayer in their own language or a language they felt comfortable in.
On Monday, there was also a question and answer session with the Swedish ambassador to Brazil.
Joshua said “Given the global events taking place that week in the Southern American continent it was intriguing to gain insight into the day-to-day life of an ambassador.
“The group also had plenty of time to make friendships and have fun. The group went sledging, took part in a cake decorating competition, had time for games and many snowball fights which were awesome! The young adults hope to invite those that they met over to our diocese to further foster the new friendships created and continue to learn more about each other’s cultures and way of life, something we all left feeling we learnt more about and found interesting. If you get the chance to go, I would really recommend it!”
When the young adults were asked to describe the experience in one word, Enoch Shell and George Goulding wrote “Eye-opening and interesting”.
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